


Looking Forward

by haledamage



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 08:04:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12294897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haledamage/pseuds/haledamage
Summary: three Awakened have a moment and a bottle of wine together





	Looking Forward

**Author's Note:**

> for prompt 0008, I rolled Maneha, wine, and future

"You okay, dear?" Kai asked Maneha, who sat staring into the fire with a pensive look on her face. It had been a long day, but longer for Maneha than the rest of them. Kai knew she was still dwelling on the Salt Well.

"Yeah, I'm all right. Just thinking." She fell quiet again and Kai let her be.

After a while, Aloth joined them at the fire. He and Kai exchanged a small smile, but kept the silence so Maneha could think.

"Do you still believe what you said before?" Maneha asked suddenly, eyes bright and intense in the flickering light. "That we Awakened for a reason?"

"I _have_ to," Kai said plainly. "I have to believe that there's a purpose behind it, some knowledge or lesson to be learned, because otherwise I'm going mad for _nothing_ and I can't accept that."

Maneha nodded sagely, absorbing Kai's words, then turned to Aloth. "And what d'you think?"

"If you had asked me that even a month ago, I'd have disagreed," Aloth said softly, fingers steepled together in thought. "I fought against it for a long time. But yes, I do think it has a purpose. Iselmyr and I are stronger together. In that same vein, you both must have Awakened because there was something to gain from the memories returned to you."

They once again fell into a tense, contemplative silence. Kai studied Maneha where she sat across the fire, expression grim in a way she rarely was, then turned and studied Aloth's profile, his countenance controlled and blank.

"We have to stop running," Kai hadn't realized she said it out loud until they both turned to look at her. "That's the secret, isn't it? That's the big thing we three have in common, we've spent years running from things in our past that we can't control. Maybe it's time we stop."

"You know," said Maneha after another long silence, "I can't remember the last time I looked _forward_ to anything."

"I never plan more than a month ahead," Kai added.

"Then we should," Aloth's voice was hard, determined. "Stop looking back and start looking ahead."

Maneha laughed, a loud punch of sound that broke the malaise over the camp. "I'll drink to that." She pulled a bundle out of her bag and unwrapped it to reveal a bottle of wine.

"How many of those do you _have_?" Aloth asked incredulously.

"As many as I need." Maneha used her teeth to pull the cork from the bottle, then took a drink from it. "Little stale, maybe, but it's all right." She took another drink and passed the bottle to Aloth.

He stared at it sourly before taking it. He gave it a sniff and wrinkled his nose. "To looking ahead, I suppose." He took a drink and wiped his mouth. "And to looking forward to better wine, at least."

Kai took the bottle when Aloth offered it. "To the future, whatever it may hold." She drank from the bottle and grimaced. It tasted like burnt vinegar, bitter and sour and weirdly smokey. "Are we sure this isn't a poorly disguised poison?"

"Nah," Maneha said as she leaned to take her wine back, "I've been poisoned once. It tastes sweet and medicinal, like rotting fruit."

The bottle made a few more rounds around the fire, with Maneha taking the lion's share, until it was empty. The three of them fell into silence again, but it wasn't heavy or tense like before.

"We should do this again," Maneha said, "sometime in the future."

"A year from now," Aloth added with a small smile. "Maybe I'll supply the wine then."

Kai grinned, "I look forward to it."


End file.
